Integrated Water Finance Solutions to Drought in the Yakima Basin: Recommendations for the Yakima Drought Relief Pumping Plant (YDRPP)

Abstract

Located within the United States Department of the Interior (DOI), the Natural Resource Investment Center (NRIC) was created under the Obama Administration to facilitate resource conservation through innovative partnerships and market-based strategies. One of the current projects at the NRIC involves developing the financial strategy for an emergency drought-relief pumping plant in central Washington’s Yakima Basin. The Yakima Drought Relief Pumping Plant (YDRPP) is a project conceived by one of the Basin’s junior users, Roza Irrigation District (Roza), whose annual water supply has been depleted by recent drought. The spatial distribution of junior and senior water rights combined with the various competing uses for water has created an opportunity for YDRPP water to yield synergistic benefits across the Basin. Roza will finance the YDRPP and has multiple strategies at its disposal to do so. The NRIC is tasked with creating an affordable project that serves the water needs of Roza. As student consultants for the NRIC, we are evaluating the hydrologic, ecological, and financial implications of the project for Roza and other major stakeholders in the Basin, and recommending financial strategies to actualize the many potential benefits of the YDRPP.